“I haven’t a clue. I received a text message from Rebekka Eldridge last night asking me to be here.”
“Hmm…” McCartan said. “I received an email late last night letting me know they were meeting with you and that I should be here as well.”
We tossed around a couple of possibilities but were interrupted when Vladislav Nicolai appeared and told us to follow him.
“What’s this about?” McCartan asked.
“Not my place, sir,” Nicolai said.
He led us through the same passage he’d previously taken me through to the alley exit. Only this time, he led us to a conference room. He opened the door. Eldridge, Weiss, and San Nicolás sat at one end of the conference table.
Eldridge gestured toward the end of the table. “I’m glad you’re both here on time. This should make things easier.” She gestured and said, “Please sit.” We pulled out our chairs. I glanced at McCartan, who raised an eyebrow at me, but didn’t question the odd setting for this meeting.
“For the purposes of this meeting, we are recording the proceedings,” Noam Weiss informed us. “Technically, in New York, we don’t have to tell you this, but we think it’s a best practice.”
“I’m not sure how comfortable I am with this,” McCartan said. “You summon Erika and me, then inform us you’re recording the meeting. I feel I must obje—“
The door opened behind us.
“I’m sorry I’m late,” an Icelandic voice said behind me. “I thought this meeting was happening in Eldridge’s office, not here.”
My Icelandic giant walked into the room. Without glancing down to look at me, he took a seat at the other end of the table.Did he know about this?He mentioned an early morning meeting last night.
He opened his briefcase and pulled out a legal pad. He turned and looked toward me. His face flashed surprise at seeing McCartan and me. I doubted he was surprised to see McCartan, but he looked shocked to see me.
“This is my personal lawyer,” Eldridge explained, “Benedikt Hannes Einar. He’s a partner at Jonson, Einar, and Berkowitz.”
McCartan nodded, and I did my best to shoot Benedikt a pleading look that screamedwhat is this about?Instead of getting an answer, his face was impassive and all business.
“For the record, I’m here to ensure this process is handled to the direct letter of the Actor’s Equity contract,” Benedikt informed the group. “I am serving as legal counsel for Rebekka Eldridge and not Naughty List Productions.” Benedikt turned and nodded toward Weiss.
“I’m Noam Lavie Weiss, and I represent Naughty List Productions as the general manager,” Weiss started.
“For the record, I’m Asier Zlota San Nicolás. I’m the director ofThe Naughty List.”
“I’m Rebekka Eldridge, lead producer for Naughty List Productions.” She looked at Ryan and me and added, “With us today are the executive director of Actor’s Equity, Jeremy McCartan. We also have Erika Saunders.”
“As the company general manager,” Weiss then said. “The burden of terminating an actor’s contract falls on my back.”Huh?“It is with immense sadness that this meeting has been called to end Erika Lynsay Saunders’ contract with Naughty List Productions.”
“What?” I said in a voice higher and shriller than I intended. A flash of surprise crossed Benedikt’s face, but he quickly masked it.
“This should come as no shock to Ms. Saunders,” Weiss said, looking at McCartan and not me. “We’ve known for some time that a member of the cast was violating the nondisclosure agreement within their contract and speaking to the media about the company’s proprietary information. From what we have pieced together, Ms. Saunders spoke with someone at TheBroadway411 about current backstage gossip, including personnel matters and technical issues. As such, the damage was done at the box office after—“
“I’ve done no such thing,” I cut in. “I’ve never talked to the press. I haven’t talked to the press in years.”
“We were afraid you’d try to deny the allegations,” Weiss said. He gave me a look that was two parts anger and one part pity. He placed a small tape recorder on the table.Where does someone find a tape recorder these days?For three minutes, I listened to a recording of myself talking about the incident with Lachtna MacGrory and Maeve McKenna. I had no idea how they got the recording or when it was made. Then it hit me, Carissra’s gaming microphone. I remember Carissra and Kirk talking about how good it was at picking up voices. My mind raced a million miles a minute. How could something so innocuous as a conversation with my neighbor become public knowledge then be used to get myself canned?
“As you can see,” Weiss said. “We have incontrovertible proof of Ms. Saunders’ guilt.”
“I see,” McCartan said, not bothering to look at me.
“How did you get that recording?” I blurted out.
“So, you don’t deny it was you on the recording?” Eldridge shifted her steely gaze to me.
“Yes, but—“
“For the record,” Benedikt said without looking at me, “Ms. Saunders has admitted that the voice on the recording is hers.”
